Three years after the coal ash spill in Kingston, TN., the United States has not yet established standards to curb the threat to public health and waterways posed by unstable or leaking ash ponds at coal-fired power plants. Meanwhile, the volume of toxic metals in the ash that power plants dumped in ponds rose 9 percent in 2010, the most recent year for which information is available.
According to an analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP): “…the most recent data from the U.S. Toxics Release Inventory show that disposal in these big ponds was higher in 2010 than it has been since 2007, the year before the TVA spill. Yet EPA’s proposal to set standards for safe disposal – which included a plan to close down ash ponds within five years – has gone nowhere.”
For the analysis, click here.
For the news release, click here.
